This map by Oronce Fine was one of the most influential published in its day. It was displayed using the more advanced double cordiform projection. Fine was the first to produce a map a cordiform map, a manuscript in 1519 which no longer exists although survives through his printed map of 1534. This map is the first printed double cordiform map. Oronce Fine (20 Dec 1494- 8 Aug 1555) was born in Briancon in the Dauphiné region of France, hence the imprint on the map … He was born in to a family of doctors and after his father’s death he was sent to Paris, studied at the University and earned a medical degree from the College of Navarre in 1522. It is known that he also spent time in prison both in 1518 and 1524. Whilst working on his degree he edited mathematical and astronomical texts for a Parisian printer and had a clear fascination of instruments. One of his own manufacture survives today from 1524. In 1526 he wrote his first book on an instrument that measures the positions of the planets. In 1531 Fine was given the chair of mathematics at the Collège Royal in Paris where he remained until his death.

Fine’s map is cartographically more advanced than many of its day. Its most notable feature is the new ‘Terra Australis’ in the southern hemisphere which is described as being ‘newly discovered’. A reference to the voyage of circumnavigation of Ferdinand Magellan 1519-22 knowledge of which began circling Europe in the late 1520s. Passing through the straits Magellan noted the landmass of Tierra del Fuego to the south not realising it formed merely a chain of islands and not a continent. It was a further one hundred years before it would be rounded. It was Charles Hapgood who in 1965 published ‘Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings’ which related his opinions about the map. He was amazed at how Fine could have known that a continent existed at the South Pole centuries before it was discovered. Many theories have been expounded but the most logical is that medieval cartographers believed that a balance had to exist between the lands of the northern and southern hemispheres.

Near the tip of South America is noted the ‘Mare magellanicum’ which is the first written use of explorer Ferdinand Magellan’s voyage. It’s up to date geography also includes references to the capture of Mexico by Hernando Cortes 1519-21. North America is depicted with a land bridge to the continent of Asia. The whole is ornately finished with floral framework. A title above is included in a flowing banner and below two putti hold another. The projection used by Fine is used by the great Gerard Mercator for his great world map of 1538 and the derivatives of that map produced in Italy by Salamanca and Lafreri. Fine’s map was included in later editions of the work in a total of six states according to Shirley, two of them dated 1531. This example is in the most desirable first state with the imprint of Oronce Fine before it was removed. Harrisse 197; Nordenskiold ‘Facsimile Atlas’ pp. 74 (note), 90, 106 pl. 41; Nordenskiold ‘Periplus’ p. 163; Sabin 34101; Schilder Australia Unveiled Map 7; Shirley 66; Suarez Shedding the Veil no. 19; Watson, Ruth ‘Cordiform Maps Since the Sixteenth Century …’ in Imago Mundi 60 pt. 2 pp. 182-94.